Community participation for inclusive land administration: A case study of the Odisha urban slum formalization project

• Published in: Land use policy Vol. 125; p. 106457
• Main Authors: Ho, Serene, Choudhury, Pranab R., Joshi, Richa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2023
• Subjects: case studies; class; Community participation; community service; gender; governance; India; Land administration; Land formalization; land management; land policy; Participatory processes; politics; Urban slums; India; Community participation; Land formalization; Land administration; Urban slums; Participatory processes; India
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106457
• ISSN: 0264-8377

Participation in land administration projects in the Global South is increasingly normalized, especially in processes like land formalization to ensure implementation is inclusive and responsible. This paper aims to extend land administration scholarship on participation with a focus on modalities of participation increasingly common in projects in the Global South: the central role of technology, decentralized implementation models, and local governance. The analysis draws on a case study of the experiences of eight urban informal settlement communities in Odisha, India, who are beneficiaries of a large-scale urban slum formalization project that has adopted these modalities to achieve an implementation process that aspires to institutionalize a strong participatory emphasis. The research findings reinforce longstanding issues identified in the broader participation literature that draws attention to how power, control, interests, motivations, and institutions condition community participation. In Odisha, these issues have clear intersections with caste, gender, and class – all of which have been found to further erode individual and community agency. Specifically for land administration, the results show that though technology aspired to facilitate inclusion, without the necessary checks and balances and the reframing of communities’ role as equal co-producers of knowledge, participation was often reduced to superficial transactions of information configured by technical workflows rather than mediated discussions for inclusive outcomes that have integrity. Similarly, despite a decentralized model, a normative approach to participation leaves it subject to interpretation and the skills and resources of local municipalities and NGOs, with little clarity or consistency for communities. This undermines deliberative participation and true agency. Finally, the assumption that newly formed Slum Dwellers Associations (SDAs) would provide effective local governance needs revisiting as the findings show low levels of participation in SDAs and that its functioning appears correlated with local capacity and extant community dynamics and politics. These have all inadvertently structured participation in a way that compromises aspirations of inclusive and equitable outcomes. •This paper aims to focus on modalities of participationviz s: the central role of technology, decentralized implementation models, and local governance in the Global South.•The research findings reinforce longstanding issues that emphasize attention to how power, control, interests, motivations, and institutions conditions community participation.•These issues have clear intersections with caste, gender, class which further erode individual and community agency.•The results show that though technology aspired to be a modality for inclusion, without the necessary checks and balances and the reframing of communities’ role as equal co-producers of knowledge.•Participation was often reduced to superficial transactions of information configured by technical workflows rather than mediated discussions for inclusive outcomes.